Many baseball teams have been known as the Portland Beavers; the most recent club, which began operating in 2001, recognized the history of all previous incarnations as its own, stating it was established in 1903, the same year the Pacific Coast League was established. The "Beavers" originated in 1906 following a newspaper contest to rename the existing Portland team that had been created in 1901 when a group of Portland businessmen founded the Portland Baseball Club. Along with the
Los Angeles Angels,
Oakland Oaks,
Sacramento Solons,
San Francisco Seals, and
Seattle Rainiers, a Portland Beavers club was a charter member of the Pacific Coast League in 1903. Portland and
Sacramento were the only two charter cities that had a team in the PCL as of 2010, the other cities having been taken over by
Major League Baseball franchises. Following the 2010 season, the Beavers were placed for sale and relocation because of the lack of a suitable stadium in Portland, as
PGE Park was being remodeled into a soccer-only configuration for
Major League Soccer's 2011 expansion
Portland Timbers. In 2010, the Beavers were sold to Jeff Moorad, owner of the
San Diego Padres. The team temporarily moved to southern Arizona and became the
Tucson Padres while awaiting a new purpose-built stadium in their planned future home of
Escondido, California. After the 2013 season, the Padres instead moved them to
El Paso, Texas, and became the
El Paso Chihuahuas.
Establishment of a Portland team: 1903–1918 On December 10, 1902, Henry Harris, the owner of the
California League's San Francisco team announced that the
Pacific Northwest League team from Portland, the
Portland Webfoots, and a new team from
Seattle were joining with the California League to create the Pacific Coast League (PCL). Before the Portland franchise joined the PCL, the president of the Pacific Northwest League, Henry Lucas, was adamant in keeping the Portland franchise in his league. A team in the Pacific Northwest League was formed called the Portland Green Gages, which folded early in its first season. When the Portland PCL team first started playing, they were known as the
Portland Browns. In their first season, classified as an
independent league, the PCL featured six teams including the Browns. The Browns finished their first season fifth in the PCL. In 1906, the team was renamed the
Portland Beavers after a newspaper contest was started to decide the new name of the team. The Beavers finished last in 1907, and second in 1908 and 1909. In 1910, Portland won another pennant behind the pitching of
Vean Gregg and
Gene Krapp. Gregg finished the season with a 32–18 record and 14
shutouts while Krapp had a 29–16 record for the season. Portland repeated as PCL champs in 1911 fielding four 20-game-winning pitchers. In 1912, Judge McCredie helped get a new 12,000-seat grandstand built at
Vaughn Street Park. His obituary later read that the ballpark was "the sensation of baseball, because it inaugurated a minor league precedent of providing individual grandstand seats, which fellow magnates called an extravagance and a dangerous innovation." The NAPBL made a change to league classifications in 1912, making Double-A the top tier. The PCL, and the Portland Beavers, moved into this new classification from the previous top tier Class A league. During the 1910s, the Beavers developed some working relationships with other teams. From 1911 to 1914 the Portland Beavers had their own farm team which played in the
Northwest League (renamed the Pacific Coast International League in 1918). The Class B team shared the use of Vaughn Street Park and was known as the Portland Pippins in 1911, but changed their name to the Portland Colts in 1912. During the 1914 season, the Colts moved to the Seattle area and finished their last season as the
Ballard Pippins before folding. Portland also had an informal relationship with the
Cleveland Indians through much of the 1910s that saw many future major league stars come through Portland to fine-tune their skills. Portland played well in 1913 and 1914, winning the pennant both seasons. Though the 1915 Beavers featured future Hall of Famer
Stan Coveleski, the team did not fare too well, and started into a tailspin that would last for over a decade. The year also marked the end of their relationship with the Cleveland Indians. With America's entry into World War I, restrictions were placed on travel, such that the Beavers withdrew from the PCL for the 1918 season, playing instead in the Class B Pacific Coast International League. The team was known as the
Portland Buckaroos and finished their shortened season (play was stopped on July 7 due to the war) in second place 1½ games back of Seattle. Ironically, the PCL ceased play just a week later as they too were unable to continue play due to restrictions on travel. Due to the Beavers' withdrawal from the PCL, the league offered Sacramento a franchise to replace the Portland team, while the McCredies continued to own the baseball club in Portland. The new team in Sacramento was known as the
Sacramento Senators, and could be considered a continuation of the original Portland Baseball Club.
Return to the Pacific Coast League: 1919–1972 With the McCredies still at the helm, Portland was offered an expansion franchise and re-entered the PCL in 1919. The team finished in seventh place, only ahead of last-place Seattle who was also an expansion team that year. Portland finished in last place in 1920 and again in 1921. After the 1921 season, the McCredies sold the team to
Walter Klepper who had been president of the Seattle team. Klepper brought in the 35-year old
Jim Thorpe, who played outfield and first base with the Beavers in 1922, paying him a then-unheard of minor league salary of US$1,000 per month. It was not long before Klepper was in the middle of a dispute with Baseball Commissioner
Kenesaw Mountain Landis. Klepper had brought Seattle player-manager Bill Kenworthy down to manage the Beavers, only Seattle claimed Kenworthy was still under contract and that Klepper had tampered in the matter. Landis suspended Klepper until January 1, 1925, and declared Kenworthy ineligible to play or manage Portland until 1924. According to
The Portland Beavers, a book by Kip Carlson and Paul Andresen, "The feisty Klepper went to court and had the decision overturned, supposedly the only time that Landis ever had a ruling reversed." Kenworthy did manage the Beavers in 1924, replacing popular
player-manager Jim Middleton. He was fired mid-season, though, as he was not able to generate support from the players. the Beavers won the second half division title by four games, defeated first-half winner
Edmonton Trappers in four games (3–1) to take the Northern Division title, then swept the three-time defending champion
Albuquerque Dukes in three games in the finals to capture the league championship. As PCL champs in 1983, the Beavers participated in the first
Triple-A World Series, a three-team round-robin competition in
Louisville with the champions of the
International League and the
American Association. Each team played the others twice and it was won by the
Tidewater Tides of the IL with three wins. Portland was second, splitting with both teams, and the
Denver Bears were 1–3. A decade later, Beavers owner
Joe Buzas moved the team after the 1993 season east to
Salt Lake City, where they became the
Salt Lake Buzz in 1994 in a
brand new ballpark. The team was renamed the Stingers in 2001, and have been the
Bees since the 2006 season. For the first time since 1894, Portland was without professional baseball. After being without a team in 1994, the Class A
Rockies of the Northwest League relocated from
Bend for the 1995 season. The
Portland Rockies played in the Rose City for the next six seasons and served an important role for the city, whose demand for a major league team was growing. They were league champions in 1997. Portland's support for the Rockies paved the way for the return of the Triple-A PCL in 2001.
The Beavers return: 2001–2010 Following the 2000 season, the
Los Angeles Dodgers and
San Diego Padres swapped Triple-A affiliates. The
Albuquerque Dukes (a charter franchise of the PCL in 1903 as the
Los Angeles Angels from 1903 to 1958, and later the
Spokane Indians from 1958 to 1971) moved to Portland and became the Beavers, as the Padres' top affiliate. As part of the relocation agreement, Civic Stadium was renovated in 2000 and renamed
PGE Park. The Las Vegas Stars (the 1919–72 Beavers) became the Dodgers' top affiliate; they were renamed the
51s for 2001. The single-A Portland Rockies moved up the
Columbia River to
Pasco and became the
Tri-City Dust Devils in 2001. In 2007, owner
Merritt Paulson announced that he was considering changing the name of the team to prevent confusion with the
Oregon State University teams from
Corvallis. Possible new names and logos were unveiled, and a vote was staged on the team website. "Portland Beavers" won the contest, and the team unveiled new logos and colors on January 29, 2008. The Beavers emphasized their connection to the three prior franchises with the notation "Est. 1903" on their primary logo. The team also brought back the name "Lucky Beavers" as part of a sleeve patch on their alternate jersey.
Hunt for new stadium and team sale: 2009–2010 In 2009, the city of Portland was awarded a
Major League Soccer (MLS) expansion franchise for 2011, to be named the
Portland Timbers. The Portland City Council approved a $31 million agreement to renovate PGE Park to a soccer- and football-only stadium, with the condition that
a new ballpark be built in Portland for the Beavers by 2011. in the
Rose Quarter was an original site for the proposed ballpark; however, it met public opposition. Initial plans called for the new ballpark to be built at the site currently occupied by the
Memorial Coliseum, which would have been torn down, but public outcry about demolishing a Portland landmark led Portland mayor
Sam Adams to propose a second site in the
Rose Quarter area north of Memorial Coliseum. The site, however, proved to be too small. Another location on the site of
Charles D. Walker Stadium in the
Lents neighborhood in southeast Portland was also rejected due to objections from neighbors. That was until the
Portland Pickles collegiate wood bat team began play in 2016 at Walker Stadium. In June 2009, the Portland City Council voted to separate the soccer and baseball projects, allowing renovation of PGE Park to proceed without completed plans for a baseball stadium in place. Other locations in the Portland area were considered for the ballpark, including a vacant terminal at the
Port of Portland,
Delta Park, the
Portland Expo Center,
Portland Meadows, the Westwood Corporation Heliport site, a building owned by
Portland Public Schools near the Rose Quarter, and suburban locations in
Beaverton,
Clackamas, and
Vancouver, Washington. None of these sites progressed past initial discussions. With no suitable Portland location available, in July 2010, Paulson announced that he was putting the team up for sale and relocation. Padres owner
Jeff Moorad formed a group to buy the team and talked of moving its home games to the
Lake Elsinore Diamond in
Lake Elsinore, California, until a new stadium in Escondido could be built. Eventually, the group decided to move the team temporarily to Tucson in 2011, rename them the
Tucson Padres, with plans to move again to Escondido when a new ballpark was built. The plans in Escondido failed, and the team was sold again; they moved to west Texas prior to the 2014 season and became the
El Paso Chihuahuas. The Portland area was without minor league baseball in 2011 and 2012. After the 2012 season, the NWL
Yakima Bears relocated to a
new 4,500-seat stadium in the northwest suburb of
Hillsboro and became the
Hillsboro Hops. ==Notable alumni==